Whilst her friends headed for the beaches of New Zealand, 24 year old Jess Perry felt called to treat sufferers of the disease at the Nepalese Hospital Anandaban.
Perry said “Currently, one person every two minutes is diagnosed with leprosy. That needs to change.”
Left untreated, leprosy causes progressive and permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and even blindness.
As part of The Leprosy Mission’s ‘Heal Nepal’ campaign, Doctor Perry, currently a junior doctor at Glangwili General Hospital in Carmarthen, south Wales, ran free clinics for sufferers of the bacterial infection.
“The prejudice, myths and fears surrounding leprosy are truly heart-breaking. The stigma is so great that people with symptoms tend to avoid seeking treatment because they don’t want to be diagnosed.
“It’s frustrating because it is easily treatable with a course of antibiotics – and the earlier you come, the better the outcome.”
She said: “God clearly told me he wanted me to be a doctor but not coming from an affluent area and from a family where nobody had been to university before, it seemed quite an ambition. There were many times when I doubted I could or should continue with medicine.
“My faith also helped me through medical school when you see, for the first time, so many patients getting horrible diagnoses. The world is really rubbish sometimes but it’s a temporary thing. We…
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